In 1995 a portion of the plane served as the centrepiece of a controversial exhibition at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum (NASM) in Washington, D.C. The project ultimately spanned some 20 years. In addition, birds had built nests in various compartments. Exposure to the elements had damaged the plane, and it had been vandalized.
In 1984 work began on restoring the aircraft, which was in dire need of repair. It was later disassembled and stored in Maryland. The Enola Gay remained in service for several years before being given to the Smithsonian Institution on July 3, 1949. The B-29 Superfortress Enola Gay backed over a pit to be loaded with the first atomic bomb, which would be released on Hiroshima, Japan, on August 6, 1945. Japan officially surrendered on September 2, 1945. Three days later the Enola Gay conducted weather reconnaissance in the lead-up to the bombing of Nagasaki, Japan. Tibbets flew the Enola Gay back to Tinian, where he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross. While some 1,900 feet (580 metres) above the city, Little Boy exploded, killing tens of thousands and causing widespread destruction. At 8:15 am, the bomb was released over Hiroshima.
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See all videos for this articleĪt approximately 2:45 am on August 6, 1945, Tibbets-who was now a full colonel-and a crew of 11 took off from Tinian island carrying a uranium bomb that was known as “Little Boy.” The Enola Gay-Tibbets had a maintenance man paint that name on the aircraft’s nose shortly before takeoff-was accompanied by various other planes. From The Second World War: Allied Victory (1963), a documentary by Encyclopædia Britannica Educational Corporation. The B-29 Superfortress Enola Gay took off from the Mariana Islands on August 6, 1945, bound for Hiroshima, Japan, where, with the dropping of the atomic bomb, it heralded a new and terrible concept of warfare.
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